One day after Guyana celebrated the top performers at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), a symposium on education heard that over 40% of the 14,145 students who wrote the examinations would likely not graduate secondary school.
Education Specialist Audrey Rodrigues and Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist Micheal Gillis, in a presentation titled “Consideration for Accelerating Attendance, Participation and Performance,” told the Symposium on Boys’ Education at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre, that only 55% of Guyanese students graduate secondary school.
In fact, based on the data presented by the two UNICEF employees, only 47% of Guyanese boys and 57% of girls matriculate.
They explained that many students are finding the transition from Primary to Secondary education daunting and therefore both boys and girls are dropping out at a much higher rate in the lower secondary than in primary.
